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 What is the Difference Between Leaders and Managers!

Part 2

 

By Victoria Treacy

 

 

Organizations without leadership do not perform as well as those that do. This is clearly due to the impact that a lack of leadership has on the employees.  In such an environment there is usually less production, little motivation and animosity.  “Individual desires and drives are conditioned by psychological needs or by needs arising from a person’s background.  But what people are willing to strive for is also affected by the organizational climate in which they operate (Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H. (1990) p.337).  Organizational climate can have substantial effects on employees, which will in turn have an effect on the company’s bottom line.  Joan Burton says, “Sometimes management practices are psychosocial hazards.  Ensuring a healthy psychosocial environment requires looking long and hard at the leadership style and management practices of your organization.  Another phrase for psychosocial hazards is “workplace stressors”, things related to the way work is organized that can threaten the mental and physical health and safety of employees” (www.nqi.ca).

 

            “The Leadership Factor” lists the following characteristics needed to provide effective leadership versus characteristics found in many of today’s firms:

o       Industry and organizational knowledge: What is needed is a relatively broad knowledge of industry, business functions, and firm; and what is found is narrow/specialized knowledge of firm, functions, and industry.

o       Relationships within the firm and industry: What is needed is a relatively broad set of good working relationships in the firm and industry; what is found are good working relationships with (at best) the few subgroups of people with which they have worked.

o       Track record and reputation: What is needed are good track records and reputations in a relatively broad set of activities; what is found are narrow track records that are credible to some but not to many others.

o       Ability & skills: What is needed are keen minds and strong interpersonal skills; what is found is mixed: not uniformly strong at both the intellectual and interpersonal levels.

o       Personal values: What is needed is high integrity: value all people and groups; what is found is not uniformly high in integrity.

o       Motivation: What is needed is a strong desire to lead; what is found is some desire to lead.  Considerable desire to control. (p.62)

 

When managers do not possess leadership skills, they are less apt to empower their employees.  This takes away from their motivation and creates a sense of unfairness.  “Feelings associated with a sense of unfairness are anger, depression, demoralization, and anxiety.  In today’s fast-paced society, businesses cannot succeed without making high demands on employees, and often expecting a lot of sustained effort.  It’s the fairness that counts- the balance between the stressors (demands and efforts) and the satisfiers (control and rewards).  Most employees can cope with high demands if given appropriate control over the way they work, and can put out sustained high efforts if they feel appropriately rewarded and appreciated (Burton, J. www.nqi.ca). 

 

Being a leader in your organization is necessary to the function and success of all those involved.  Yet, it is also necessary to have the skills of an effective manager.  Being one without the other is not beneficial to an organization.

 

According to James Farr (www.leadership-trust.org):

I’ve seen organizations with too many leaders that failed from their inability to manage and implement day-to-day business issues.  I’ve seen companies with excellent managers fail because they did not innovate, motivate change, nor keep their eye on the strategic threats that eventually ate their lunch.  An organization needs both management and leadership.  Managing is a subset of leadership.  A good leader must both lead and manage well.  We should manage things, but lead people.  Manage financial ratios, inventory, process flow, cash, information systems, and leadership development.  Lead your people their perceptions, mindset, and motivation.

 

Leadership is just one of the many assets a successful manager must possess. Though being a leader is an extremely important function, there has to be a fine balance between the two.  “Managing and leading are two different ways of organizing people.  The manager uses a formal, rational method while the leader uses passion and stirs emotion” Fenton, J. (1990) p.113).  Having a delicate balance of both will increase personal and organizational success.  “Leadership and management are necessary, but not necessarily compatible.  They are the corporate ying and yang.  Leadership upsets orderly planning, while management discourages risk taking.  Yet these elements play off one another to create a balance of sorts.  They must.  For without management and its short-term focus, there can be no long run, the domain of leadership” (Haas, H. & Tamarkin, B. (1992) p.56)

 

According to Jim Clemmer (Managing things and leading people):

Trying to run an organization with only leadership or management is like trying to cut a page with half a pair of scissors.  Leadership and management are a matched set; both are needed to be effective.  Systems and processes (management) for example, are critical to success.  You and your organization can be using the latest technologies and be highly focused on customers and those serving them (leadership), but if the methods and approaches you’re using to structure and organize your work is weak, your performance will suffer badly.  People in your organization can be “empowered”, energized, and enlightened; but if your systems, processes, and technologies don’t enable them to perform well, they won’t.  Developing the discipline and using the most effective tools and techniques of personal and organizational systems and processes is a critical element of high performance.

 

Being an effective manager while also leading and empowering employees will create an organizational environment where employees are happy, productive, and motivated.  It will create a climate where everyday business is controlled, but employees will know the mission, visions, and goals of the company and be inspired to reach them.  A manager’s success lies in his or her ability to inspire trust, loyalty, and commitment.  “Leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action.  Excellence in both distinguishes successful companies.  Leadership requires a shift in orientation from focusing on management as a process of control to developing and articulating a vision, planning appropriate strategies, developing the ability to change rapidly, and building a committed workforce (www.powershr.com).  Leadership is showing others how they can achieve a vision.  Fostering leadership in others is a management activity, making the best use of all resources at your disposal.

 

Management and the skills of a manager have been thoroughly studied throughout the years.  Yet, there is still so much to learn about leadership.  It is a topic that will continue to be researched because of the important role it plays in business today and will continue to play in the future.  Being a leader has everything to do with the future.  They innovate and are constantly thinking about the future direction of their company.  “The leader who refuses to think about the future soon will not have to worry about the responsibility of leadership.  Leadership and the future are intimately tied together.  Leaders think about the future because they know that one of the major realms of leadership is the realm of the future (www.smartleadership.com).

 

Good management technique used to be simple.  The boss told employees what to do and they complied.  No one worried if someone’s feelings were hurt along the way.  Employees who failed to do what they were told were either disciplined or fired.  These managers believed that authority should be obeyed.  Therefore, they expected obedience and in turn, obeyed their own supervisors.  Things have definitely changed and will continue to do so.  The way that businesses are run today, and the fast pace at which they move is continually moving toward the need for leadership.  Jim Clemmer of The Clemmer Group says, “As the sweeping movement to teams, empowerment, and involvement intensifies, many more daily management tasks are moving to the front lines where they belong.  So leadership becomes more critical.”  This statement basically means that those on the “front lines”, the employees that are dealing with everyday business transactions, are being empowered to make more of the decisions on their own.  Therefore, leadership is now a necessary part of the working environment.  For the new millennium, there are changing styles for organizations moving from management toward leadership.  “Companies are moving from punishment to rewards, demands respect to invites speaking out, drill sergeant to motivator, limits and defines to empowers, imposes discipline to values creativity, saying “Here’s what we’re going to do” to “How can I serve you?”, and from the bottom line to vision” (www.itstime.com)

 

An ever-changing business world, technology, and globalization are proving that traditional thoughts of management and leadership are not going to be successful in this new environment.  “Change, both external and internal, also has become a way of corporate life.  While the manager naturally desires stability, the leader recognizes that crisis can stimulate improvement.  Managers fasten, fix, and put things in place as permanent fixtures of the organization.  Leaders continually move about the organization, unfastening, unfixing, and moving things to make sure that the organization does not stagnate” (Hickman, C. (1990) p.11)  This is a prime example of why leadership is and will continue to have an important part of the business environment.  If there are not leaders in the organization to keep the momentum of the company moving at the necessary speed, they will probably cease to exist.

 

According to Kouzes and Posner (The Leadership Challenge):

Traditional management teachings suggest that the job of management is primarily one of control: the control of resources, including time, money, materials and people.  Tradition also suggests leadership is associated with a superior position and that it is reserved for only a very few of us.  Traditional management also implies that the ideal organization is orderly and stable, that the organizational process can and should be engineered so that things run like clockwork.  Yet, when ordinary people talk about their personal-best leadership achievements, they talk about challenging the process, about changing things, about shaking up the organization (p.15-16).

 

Research has shown that leadership is an observable set of practices.  Leaders are not always born this way.  These skills can be taught and acquired through education and a work environment that encourages it.  With work environments now focusing on teams and empowerment, managers must acquire leadership skills if they want to be successful.  “Today, leadership must be more fluid, coming from many directions as the need arises.  We need to relinquish our primitive desire to regard one person as the leader.  This means looking at all of our colleagues and ourselves to take the lead on different occasions.  This is also due to the fact that business today is too complex for those at the top to determine direction much of the time.  Leadership shows by example or persuasion a highly specific direction to take.  Business is now too complex for this to be done at the top (www.leaderdirect.com).

 

In the coming years, managers will need to continually remember the human factor.  This will be where leadership skills will be necessary.  Technology and the creation of the Internet have shown us that we always have to be one step ahead; innovation and creativity are what is going to be a big factor in the survival of many companies.  “At Wal-Mart”, say CEO David Glass, “our philosophy is that the best ideas come from people on the firing line” (Haas & Tamarkino. (1992) p.63).  With company managers leading and empowering those “on the firing line”, they will truly benefit from their employees. 

 

Another important and necessary leadership skill that will be important to the future of leadership is emotional intelligence.  “Simply put, emotional intelligence is the ability to manage your own emotions and to manage your relationships with others.  It consists of five dimensions: 1)  Self-knowledge, or being aware of one’s emotions; 2)  Self-control, or managing one’s own emotions;  3)  Motivating oneself.  This is the ability to marshal emotions in support of one’s goals or desire and, contrarily, to delay immediate gratification of one’s desires;  4)  Empathy, or recognizing emotions in others; and 5)  Interpersonal competence, or handling relationships with others effectively” (Whetton, D. & Cameron, K. (2002) pp.121-122). This is what will separate outstanding leaders from the mediocre ones; how they handle the emotionally charged situations that they face each day.

 

According to Byron Stock (www.byronstock.com):

Developing emotional intelligence is critical for business leaders who want to succeed in the 21st. century.  “If you have a leader who is open and caring, people read that real quick and they know it’s an okay place to be and they like to be there”, said Elizabeth Smith, Vice President, American Electric Power.  “If that dynamic isn’t there, people are not as productive, they are stressed, unhappy, and they project that unhappy image to everyone they meet.”  Harvey Jones, CEO and founder of apparel company Cutter & Buck says, “People don’t succeed because they lack the emotional intelligence, they lack the human touch, and they lack what it really takes to be a good leader.”

 

Leaders and managers do differ in their visions, focus, how they look at their employees, and their perception of their business environment.

 

When looking at managing vs. leading, Karen C. Robbins (1998) compares them like this:

o       Managing is working within boundaries’ while leading is expanding boundaries.

o       Managing is controlling resources, while leading is influencing others.

o       Managing is contracting how and when work will be done, while leading is committing to get the work done no matter what.

o       Managing is waiting for all relevant data before deciding, while leading is pursuing enough data to decide now.

o       One difference suggested by the list is that managing may be more analytical, while leading may be more intuitive and visionary.

 

It is apparent that there is a difference between the two, but in order for today’s managers to be successful, there has to be a balance between the two.  This balance will create a work environment that it stable, but at the same time creative and forward thinking.  “The domain of leaders is the future.  The leader’s unique legacy is the creation of valued institution’s that survive over time” (Kouzes & Posner. (1995) p.xxv)

 

The value of possessing the qualities of a manager and a leader is that it excites the employees, gives them something to work toward, creates loyalty, increases productivity, and decreases employee turnover.  Managers will need to possess both the skills of a manager and a leader.  “Managers or administrators may have sound managerial skills, but may lack effective leadership.  It is therefore imperative that they become aware of this difference.  This will enable them to realize whether or not they possess the necessary traits, skills, and characteristics of a leader.  And if not, how they will acquire them.  Being a good manager does not necessarily mean being a leader.  Why?  Because being good at managing resources does not mean being good at dealing with its human aspects.  For our societal and business relationships to be healthier, leaders have the obligation to be satisfactorily good at both, managing and leading”  (www.chakra.org).  Leadership is an extremely important part of being a successful manager.  It is important for management to realize abilities that their employees bring to the company and show them that they are valued.  This makes for a better work environment and long-term success.  “Leadership is different from management, but not for the reason most people think.  Leadership isn’t mystical and mysterious.  It has nothing to do with having charisma or other exotic personality traits.  It’s not the province of a chosen few.  Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it.  Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary activities.  Both are necessary for success in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment” (Kotter (1991) p.73).

 

In this article we have discussed the differences between being a manager and being a leader.  We have also learned about the specific roles that each play in the business environment.  This article has also discussed how lack of leadership in an organization can negatively affect both the employees and the company.  But most importantly, we have seen that although there are differences between a manager and a leader, both are necessary in order to be successful.  A balance between the two ensures that everyday tasks are being done in the organization but employees are still empowered and valued.  It also ensures that innovation and creativity are always a part of the company’s atmosphere.  Finally, this article has discussed the future of leadership, where it is going, and the important role that it will play in the success of today’s and future organizations.  Inevitably, all organizations will have to promote and encourage leadership skills amongst their managers if they want to survive!

 

Part 1 of this article was published in the November issue of weLEAD Online Magazine.

 

 

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About the author:

 

Victoria Treacy has worked in management positions for retailers such as Macy's Herald Square in NYC and Talbots.  She has also worked for Nordstrom in Visual Merchandising. She is currently working as a program advisor for a tutorial publisher. Victoria has earned an Associate Degree in Fashion Buying & Merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and is currently completing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from Bellevue University.

 

 

References:

 

Burton, J. The leadership factor; management practices can make employees sick. www.nqi.ca.

Clemmer, J. Managing things and leading people. www.clemmer-group.com.

De Neuville, C. Are managers leaders? http://infotrain.magill.unisa.edu.au.

Dessler, G. (2001). Management: Leading people into the 21st. century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Publishers.

Farr, J. Leadership vs. management: do you know the difference? www.leadership-trust.org.

Haas, H. & Tamarkin, B. (1992) The leader within. New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Hickman, C. (1990) Mind of a manager/ soul of a leader. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Huth, A.J. Born to lead or made to manage- we need both.

Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H. (1990) Essentials of management; 5th. Edition. McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Kotter, J.P. (1988) The leadership factor. New York, New York: The Free press- Division Macmillan, Inc.

Kotter, J.P. (1991) What leaders really do. The best of the Harvard Business Review. Boston, Ma.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (1995) The leadership challenge. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, Inc. Publishers.

Leadership and management. www.powershr.com.

Robbins, K. (1998) What is your role? You can make a difference! Anna Journal; Pittman. Retrieved March 23, 2002 from ProQuest database.

Smart leaders think about the future. www.smartleadership.com.

Stock, Byron. The missing piece to the leadership puzzle. www.byronstock.com.

Taylor, B. (1996) www.itstime.com.

The nature of leadership. www.chakra.org.

University of Missouri. Important personal traits of effective leaders. www.ssu.missouri.edu.

What’s the difference between managers and leaders? www.leadersdirect.com.

Whetton, D. & Cameron, K. (2002) Developing management skills; 5th. Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Publishers.

Zaleznik, A. (1992) Managers and leaders: are they different? Harvard Business Review. Boston, Ma.